Fugitive Has Confessed To Bombings, China Says

Elisabeth Rosenthal, New York Times

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, March 24, 2001

2001-03-24 04:00:00 PDT Beijing -- The Chinese police announced yesterday that they have solved the mystery behind explosions that killed more than 100 people in the city of Shijiazhuang last week, arresting a fugitive in a southern Chinese resort town.

Police officials in Beihai City said that they had detained Jin Ruchao, 41, whose picture has been on wanted posters all over China this week. Jin, who is deaf, was caught after the first nationwide manhunt since 1983, police officials said.

On state television last night, a man whom the police identified as Jin was shown handcuffed, with his head down, being led by two officers. The camera scanned over Jin's possessions: a small blue child's backpack and a bag of some powdery substance that was not identified.

Jin "candidly confessed" both to the bombings and to an earlier killing, said the Xinhua News Agency.

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But the triumphant capture was greeted with both relief and skepticism; the skepticism because the police have released little information or evidence to buttress their assertion.

They have not explained, for example, what motive Jin -- who lived in one of the bombed buildings -- had for setting the blasts, which the authorities said killed 108 people. Nor have they addressed the question of how one lone man who is said to communicate using pencil and paper managed to set off four devastating explosions in distant parts of a city at approximately the same time.

Four apartment buildings were left largely collapsed by the blasts, which occurred when most residents were sleeping, shortly after 4 a.m. All the buildings were either four or five stories tall, and residents in Shijiazhuang say that far more that 108 people were killed.

"Before Jin Ruchao confessed in full to carrying out the explosions in Shijiazhuang, did he clearly hear what his interrogators were asking him?" asked one entry on the People's Daily Great Power Forum, a chat room. "Is Jin really a top hand at explosives?"

Earlier this week, chat rooms were filled with scornful comments about the police manhunt, calling Jin "the latest scapegoat."